ICT news

• Russian Watchdog Blocks Viber Messaging App

  13-12-2024 23:41 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader writes: Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said on Friday it had blocked access to Rakuten-owned Viber messaging app, the latest in a line of social media services to be banned by Russian authorities. In a statement, Roskomnadzor said the block was related to a violation of rules concerning the prevention of terrorism, extremism, and drug dealing.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• The US Military is Now Talking Openly About Going On the Attack in Space

  13-12-2024 23:01 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. military has begun openly discussing offensive capabilities in space, reports ArsTechnica, a significant shift from previous policies that avoided mentioning space-based weapons to prevent an arms race. U.S. Space Command recently listed "integrated space fires" -- military terminology for offensive or defensive actions against adversaries -- among its priorities.
  The move follows increasing concerns about China and Russia's space warfare capabilities, including satellite-disabling weap
  
  Read more

• Officials Demand Explanation On Mysterious Drone Sightings

  13-12-2024 22:20 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Hill: Shaun Golden, the sheriff of Monmouth County, N.J., wants feds to get to the bottom of recent mysterious drone activity in his state. Local officials, including Golden, are urging Gov. Phil Murphy (D) to declare a state of emergency. "We continue to urge our governor to press the federal government to put more resources out here," Golden said Thursday on NewsNation's "Dan Abrams Live." "The only way we're going to solve this is by the federal go
  
  Read more

• UnitedHealthcare's Optum Left an AI Chatbot, Used By Employees To Ask Questions About Claims, Exposed To the Internet

  13-12-2024 21:42 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  Healthcare giant Optum has restricted access to an internal AI chatbot used by employees after a security researcher found it was publicly accessible online, and anyone could access it using only a web browser. TechCrunch: The chatbot, which TechCrunch has seen, allowed employees to ask the company questions about how to handle patient health insurance claims and disputes for members in line with the company's standard operating procedures (SOPs).
  While the chatbot did not appear to contain or p
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Silicon Valley's Perks Culture is Largely Dead

  13-12-2024 19:11 via slashdot.org
  
  Major tech companies are scaling back workplace perks amid industry-wide layoffs and increased focus on AI development. Google, Meta, and Salesforce have reduced or eliminated benefits ranging from massage services to retreat centers, marking a shift from the lavish "perks culture" that defined Silicon Valley for two decades.
  Netflix has informally shortened its parental leave, while Meta fired employees for misusing meal vouchers. The industry saw over 264,000 layoffs in 2023, suggesting the en
  
  Read more

• HDMI 2.2 Specs With Increased Bandwidth To Be Announced at CES 2025

  13-12-2024 18:30 via it.slashdot.org
  
  HDMI Forum will announce new specifications with increased bandwidth capabilities at CES 2025, ahead of anticipated graphics card launches from AMD and NVIDIA. The announcement, scheduled for January 6, is expected to introduce HDMI 2.2 standard alongside a new cable supporting higher resolutions and refresh rates.
  Current HDMI 2.1 specification maxes out at 48 Gbps bandwidth, allowing 10K resolution at 120 Hz with compression. The upgrade aims to compete with DisplayPort 2.1, which offers up to
  
  Read more

• US Lawmakers Tell Apple, Google To Be Ready To Remove TikTok From App Stores on January 19

  13-12-2024 17:56 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives committee on China told Apple and Google's parent Alphabet to prepare to remove TikTok from U.S. app stores on January 19, following a federal appeals court decision upholding legislation requiring Chinese-based ByteDance to divest the platform or face a ban.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
  
  Read more

• Microsoft Quietly Axes Skype Credit and Phone Number Sales To Push Subscriptions

  13-12-2024 17:15 via slashdot.org
  
  Bad news for anyone out there who still uses Skype: The Microsoft-owned phone and messaging platform has quietly stopped letting users top-up accounts with credit and buy Skype phone numbers. From a report: Instead, Skype is locking into SaaS mode: It's pushing users to take monthly subscriptions for regional and global Skype-to-phone plans, for a set monthly fee, likely impacting millions of people. The most recent figures Microsoft released for Skype last year said it had 36 million daily acti
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Klarna Stopped All Hiring a Year Ago To Replace Workers With AI

  13-12-2024 16:41 via slashdot.org
  
  Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said his company was able to stop hiring a year ago as it invested in AI that's doing the work of hundreds of staff across the firm. From a report: The buy now, pay later finance provider has seen headcount fall 22% to 3,500 during that time, mostly due to attrition, Siemiatkowski said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in New York on Thursday. The company now has about 200 people using AI for their core work, he said.
  Siemiatkowski said that while the t
  
  Read more

• Legal Tech Unicorn EvenUp Relied Heavily on Humans Despite AI Claims

  13-12-2024 16:04 via slashdot.org
  
  EvenUp, a legal tech startup valued at over $1 billion, has largely relied on human workers rather than AI to process personal injury claims, according to Business Insider, which spoke to multiple employees.
  The startup, which promised to automate the analysis of medical records and case files to determine accident compensation, saw its valuation surge from $85 million to $1 billion in October. Former staff members reported that supervisors instructed them not to use the AI system due to its unr
  
  Read more

• US Curbs Scope of China Science Accord Amid Tech Rivalry

  13-12-2024 15:01 via news.slashdot.org
  
  The U.S. and China signed a modified science and technology agreement on Friday, narrowing its scope and adding security safeguards to address growing technological rivalry between the world's two largest economies.
  The updated pact, which extends cooperation for five years, focuses solely on basic research and excludes critical technologies like AI and quantum computing. The State Department said the agreement strengthens intellectual property protections and introduces new provisions for trans
  
  Read more

• Texas House Introduces Bill To Establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve

  13-12-2024 14:00 via yro.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Legislation was introduced in the Texas House of Representatives on Thursday to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, which could serve as a proving ground for the U.S. Treasury. The proposed bill would enable the state to start building a strategic bitcoin reserve by accepting taxes, fees and donations in bitcoin that would be held for a minimum of five years, Republican state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione announced on an X Spaces event Thursday.The T
  
  Read more

• CISA and EPA Release Joint Fact Sheet Detailing Risks Internet-Exposed HMIs Pose to WWS Sector

  13-12-2024 13:00 via cisa.gov
  Today, CISA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released Internet-Exposed HMIs Pose Cybersecurity Risks to Water and Wastewater Systems. This joint fact sheet provides Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) facilities with recommendations for limiting the exposure of Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) and securing them against malicious cyber activity.
  HMIs enable operational technology owners and operators to read supervisory control and data acquisition systems connected to programmable log
  
  Read more

• Scrabble Star Wins Spanish World Title Despite Not Speaking Spanish

  13-12-2024 11:00 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Nigel Richards, a New Zealand-born Scrabble legend, won the Spanish World Scrabble Championship despite not speaking Spanish. The Guardian reports: The Spanish title wasn't the first time Richards' Scrabble skills had shattered linguistic barriers: in 2015 he made headlines when he won the francophone world championships without being able to speak or understand French. Instead he reportedly memorised the entire French Scrabble dictionary in nine weeks. [...]After nearly three decades of playing
  
  Read more

• Astro Bot Wins Game of the Year

  13-12-2024 09:10 via games.slashdot.org
  
  Astro Bot has been crowned winner of Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2024 tonight. The category also included Balatro, Black Myth Wukong, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. IGN reports: Astro Bot was one of the biggest winners of the night, taking home a total of four awards in categories including Best Family Game and Best Game Direction. Other notable winners included Metaphor: ReFantazio, which won Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, and Best RPG, and Balatro, which one
  
  Read more

• Leading Scientists Urge Ban On Developing 'Mirror-Image' Bacteria

  13-12-2024 04:30 via science.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from Science Magazine: It would be a nightmare lab leak: Synthetic bacteria escape the petri dish and unleash a global plague that life on Earth is incapable of defending itself against. That's the concern raised by a group of eminent researchers in a Policy Forum published online today in Science. The commentary's 38 authors, from a broad range of disciplines, argue that governments worldwide should prohibit research and funding aimed at creating so-called mi
  
  Read more

• Epic Games' App Store Will Be Preinstalled On Millions of Android Phones

  13-12-2024 03:10 via mobile.slashdot.org
  
  Epic Games has partnered with Telefonica to pre-install its mobile game storefront on millions of Android devices. Engadget reports: As such, those who buy a phone from a Telefonica network such as O2 or Movistar in Spain, the UK, Germany and Spanish-speaking Latin America will immediately have the app, which offers access to Fortnite, Fall Guys and Rocket League Sideswipe. Epic will bring third-party games to the storefront as well, while the partners plan to offer mobile gamers on Telefonica's
  
  Read more

• Intel Executives Say a Manufacturing Spinoff Is Possible

  13-12-2024 02:30 via hardware.slashdot.org
  
  Intel's interim co-CEOs acknowledged that the company may be forced to sell its manufacturing operations if a new chipmaking technology slated for next year does not succeed. Reuters reports: Speaking at a Barclays investment banking conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Michelle Johnston Holthaus and David Zinsner - who were tapped as co-CEOs after the ouster of former CEO Pat Gelsinger last week - were asked if the company's continued combination of manufacturing and design was tied to the
  
  Read more

• Amid Cuts To Basic Research, New Zealand Scraps All Support For Social Sciences

  13-12-2024 01:50 via science.slashdot.org
  
  In an announcement that stunned New Zealand's research community, the country's center-right coalition government said it would divert half of the NZ$75 million Marsden Fund, the nation's sole funding source for fundamental science, to "research with economic benefits." From a report: Moreover, the fund would no longer support any social sciences and humanities research, and the expert panels considering these proposals would be disbanded.
  Universities New Zealand, which represents the nation's
  
  Read more

• Nearly Half of US Teens Are Online 'Constantly'

  13-12-2024 01:25 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online "constantly," according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. The report was based on a survey of 1,391 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024. The Associated Press reports: As in past years, YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers used -- 90% said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95% in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day. There was a slight downward
  
  Read more

• Google Announces Android XR, Launching 2025 On Samsung Headset

  13-12-2024 01:10 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: Besides phones and tablets, Android is available on smartwatches, TVs, and even cars. Google today announced Android XR as the next form factor the operating system is coming to. Google is using the catch-all term of extended reality (XR) to describe virtual (VR), mixed (MR), and augmented reality (AR). Android XR is for all device types, including headsets that offer video or optical see-through, screen-less "AI glasses," and AR glasses with
  
  Read more

• Google Unveils Gemini 2.0

  13-12-2024 00:30 via tech.slashdot.org
  
  Google unveiled Gemini 2.0 yesterday, almost exactly one year after Google's initial Gemini launch. The new release offers enhanced multimodal capabilities like native image and audio output, real-time tool use, and advanced reasoning to enable agentic experiences, such as acting as a universal assistant or research companion. VentureBeat reports: During a recent press conference, Tulsee Doshi, director of product management for Gemini, outlined the system's enhanced capabilities while demonstra
  
  Read more

Follow @newslocke_ict on Twitter!